Eleven Ways To Improve Your Life

This post is all about how you only need to make small changes to improve your life.

Yes, making small changes can make massive differences in your life and here are eleven simple tweaks that will do just that.

Most of us already know that if we are not happy, then we need to make changes to be happier.

But did you know that those changes can be achieved with subtle tweaks?

Small Tweaks Create Massive Changes

A lot of people want to improve their life because they are not as happy as they think they should be.

It might be that some of them have unrealistic expectations, but maybe all that is needed are a few simple changes. 

Not talking about anything major, just a few tweaks here and there. Some of you might only need a few of them to get to a quality of life that you choose to have.

For others, you may have to use most or of them if you are looking for significant changes.

Here are eleven little changes you could make that will improve your life.

Improve Your Life by Showing Gratitude

Embrace the daily practice of showing gratitude for what you have in your life.

For example, you can take a 20-minute walk. 

Get outside, smell the air, listen to the birds’ sing, and feel the warmth of the sun on your skin.

Take time to explore some green space and revel in Mother Nature and all she has to offer.

Some people find it easier to note their thoughts and appreciation in a Gratitude Journal.

There is something profoundly satisfying about the act of writing on paper that is so much better than typing on a keypad. 

Your journal can be a plain notebook or one with prompts on writing about your gratitude.

It doesn’t matter as the journal is a vehicle to save your thoughts. Putting pen to paper to write your ideas is what’s important.

Improve Your Life by Uncovering Your Life Purpose

Pause for a moment and focus on the reason you do what you do daily.

Figure out your “why”.

Why were you put on this earth? What are you here to accomplish? 

Some people choose an exercise like running or yoga as a way to find their life’s purpose.

They both have a meditational element that enables people to learn how to go inside themselves and find their purpose. 

Others prefer to experience the awe of nature.

There is no one size fits all solution. Experiment and find whatever works for you!

You’ll develop a whole new outlook on life once you connect with your life purpose.

You’ll have a spring in your step, your energy level will increase, and you will feel ready to take on the world! 

Our daily life gets so busy and chaotic that we get so wrapped in it that it becomes easy to lose track of what is important and why we are here in the first place.

Improve Your Life by Focusing On Your Health

The often-used phrase “If you have your health, you have everything!” is so accurate. If you do not have good health, then everything else in life is harder to achieve. 

Yet every day we see people abusing their health.

They overindulge in unhealthy food, smoke, drink too much alcohol, and use drugs. Some gain weight to the point of becoming obese and then resign themselves to the life of a couch potato. 

Then they complain about the lousy hand they were dealt when most of their challenges are self-inflicted.

Do you want to be that person?

A Positive Decision

Make a positive decision to live a healthier lifestyle. Focus on clean eating.

That is a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats, fish and whole grains. 

A lot of people are unsure about what to eat. I admit it can get confusing, so keep this simple rule in mind:

If it comes out of a package or from a drive-thru, avoid it. 

Your body also needs exercise to stay healthy. The AHA (American Heart Association) recommends getting a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week.

That works out to just over 20 minutes a day to maintain your health. 

A mixture of cardio and strength training is ideal. Putting it simply, cardio focuses on fat burning, and strength training focuses on building muscle. 

The old excuse of not having enough time to exercise doesn’t work. Everyone can find time to exercise. You need to make it a priority. 

If you start exercising, after a while, you will find it has a way of making you feel good.

You will also find it increases your productivity, improves your emotional health, improves your outlook on life, and provides clarity on your life purpose.

Improve Your Life by Getting Quality Sleep

Our body recharges itself when we sleep. Repairs are made to our muscles and the body’s systems.

Incredibly, your mind and body are active all night, getting you ready for the next day. 

When you don’t get enough quality sleep, you start the day with a half tank of fuel instead of a full one.

You won’t get that far with half a tank unless you do something to fill your tank again.

Evaluate the reasons you are not sleeping as well or as long as you should.

It could be your mind keeping you awake by thinking about something that you need to resolve.

Or it could be environmental such as too much light or noise.

Look at the quality of your bedding and mattress, the temperature of your bedroom, the amount of light coming in through the window, the noise outside.

Everything including when you put your phone away before sleep. 

Change what is causing you the issues and get the rest you need.

Improve Your Life by Always Having A Goal

Having a goal fits in beautifully with discovering your life purpose.

Some people will flounder in the sea of life their whole time on this earth without ever accomplishing anything meaningful. 

When you have a goal, it gives you a purpose for getting up in the morning and getting on your daily grind.

It gives you a single focus for the day and creates opportunities for you to work towards achieving your goal. 

And what should you do when you attain your goal? Well, you set a new and loftier one! 

If you are have enjoyed life a bit too much and put on weight, your goal could be to live a healthier lifestyle and lose that excess weight.

Depending on how much you have enjoyed life, that goal could keep you going for a while!

Maybe you are at the point in your life when you want a change, that might mean a change of career or to downsize and travel.

It doesn’t matter what your goal is, just make sure it is SMARTER:

• Specific: State your end goal explicitly and without any ambiguity. It must explain specifically what has to be achieved and the expected outcome.

• Measurable: How are you going to gauge whether you are making progress? You must be able to answer this question: “How will I know that I have reached my goal, and the objective is attained, and what evidence is required to confirm it?”

• Attainable: this criterion emphasises setting a goal that is challenging but nonetheless reachable against the existing constraints. You also have to assess whether the goal is realistic bearing in mind the other objectives and goals that you already have. 

• Relevant: the goal must be tied to your priorities or ideally your life purpose for it to be meaningful. You also have to check whether the timing for the goal is appropriate.

• Time-bound: Set a timetable to specify an appropriate time frame for your goal. When do you intend to start and to end? What are the intermediate steps and critical milestones to accomplish it? Celebrate each accomplishment with a reward, but the reward should not sabotage the end goal. 

• Evaluated: When you define specific checkpoints and the expected related deliverables, you can evaluate progress towards the end goal. Do not wait to reach your time-limit before assessing progress. The process of evaluation allows you to get back on track to achieving your end goal in the time frame you specified.

• Revisit: on reaching the end of the time frame that you defined for the goal, run a final evaluation to assess your success in achieving your objectives. Revisiting the objective should become the starting point for setting your new goals. What lessons did you learn? What would you do differently next time? And why? If the goal was reached, remember to reward yourself. And if it wasn’t, recognise the accomplishment and effort that you put into trying to reach your goal. 

Improve Your Life by Making Happiness A Choice 

Yes, happiness is a choice! The mind is a powerful thing, and none of us uses it to its full capacity. 

We can use part of our brainpower to develop a more positive mindset. Note I wrote, more positive.

That presupposes we are all positive, to begin with.

Hmmm! 

It is harder to have a positive mindset than a negative one because most of us habitually focus on the negative aspects of our lives.

To break that habit, you need to make a choice. 

Could you make a happiness goal? We could strive to improve and enhance the quality of our life each day.

Even by just 1% each day. Imagine the cumulative effect after 30 days or a whole year.

Improve Your Life by Using A Stop-Doing List

Many people keep a to-do list, but a stop-doing list might be more relevant for many people. What is it? It is just what it sounds like.

Make a list of the habits you have that are unproductive, a waste of time or that don’t serve you. Be tough on yourself, don’t rationalise an excuse to hang onto it.

Ever use the lame excuse “I don’t have the time.” Once you record how you spend your time and identify the things you no longer need to do, you’ll find you have lots of time.

Now you have that time you couldn’t find to exercise or see your family. No more excuses! Give it a go. Once you start doing a stop-doing list, you will be amazed. 

Improve Your Life by Connecting With People

Humans are social animals. We like to be in the company of other people. Yet for some reason, some of us make a big mistake and divorce ourselves socially from others. 

Multiple studies show that people are happier when they are around other people. Even more so if they are positively-minded people. 

Fill your social cup daily by interacting with other people. Let them know how much you appreciate having them as a friend, relative… whatever. Showing appreciation will be good for both of you!

Get out there and connect. If you are not comfortable meeting in person, then connect on social media or call on the phone 

Improve Your Life by Making Learning A Life-Long Habit 

Set your intention to learn something new each day. This will keep your mind sharper and healthier for longer than if you do nothing and stagnate. 

Now is the perfect time to do something that you have always wanted to do. Something that you never seem to have the time to. And it doesn’t have to be book-based learning. 

Each person has their own interests. Some people love to travel and experience new sights, cuisine, sounds, and culture. I think this is learning at its finest. 

Even better if you learn a foreign language to help you with your travels. All this new activity keeps your mind sharp. 

Improve Your Life by Minimising Stress

Physiologically we need a certain amount of stress to survive.

But what was an occasional response for our ancient ancestors when they had a “fight or flight” situation, has become an all too common, everyday event for many of us. 

And that is when stress becomes an issue, both physically and mentally. When you are stressed, your body releases cortisol.

This hormone is meant to reduce potential pain, increase your awareness, sharpen your senses, etc. All the things you need to either stand your ground and fight or to run like hell and flee.

The problem is that nowadays, our body interprets everyday situations as stressful and in response, dumps cortisol into our system far too often.

The consequence is that it leads to a lot of health-related issues because of it. 

The best advice is to reduce the amount of stress you are under.

You can try meditation or removing yourself from some situations. Warning that might mean getting a different job. 

Improve Your Life by Focusing On What You Can Control

Too many times, we see people that waste a lot of thought and energy on things they have no control over. It is an unproductive behaviour that you will never benefit from, except by getting more frustrated and stressed.

Logically we know all of that, but focusing on things that we have little control over is an easy trap to fall into.

Think back to when you were studying.

Wasting energy thinking about an exam result and the repercussions of that poor mark when you haven’t taken the exam yet. Putting yourself through an emotional roller coaster.

Instead, you could focus on the things you can control, like how you could spend your time revising for the exam. 

There you have it. Eleven small tweaks ways you that will help you make massive changes.

Never forget that small tweaks create massive changes when you look to improve your life. We all only have one life to live, so live it well, and be outstanding.

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How Boundaries and Limits Are Created

The words boundaries and limits are used interchangeably, but I feel they are very different.

I think of boundaries as the limits we set not from old habits and subconscious conditioning but by choice.

While limits are the restrictions on what is permissible or even possible.

You can see that boundaries and limits are similar and yet also different.

Our boundaries are the limits we set by choice rather than from old habits and subconscious conditioning.

A distinction.

The critical distinction is that limits are enforced upon us. At the same time, we set boundaries, and in doing so, we place restrictions or limits on ourselves.

This is important because our boundaries affect our energy levels, feelings, self-concept, self-respect, and happiness.

Our boundaries ensure that we have our needs met and that we aren’t being taken advantage of.

Unfortunately, we can become ‘limited’ in our abilities, behaviour, and self-concept.

These limits can be expanded with education, self-awareness, intention and repetition.

We can set new boundaries with ourselves and create boundaries to clarify how we want and expect to be treated by others.

Think about areas such as time management, lifestyle, and eating habits. 

It all rests on one critical part, ‘choice’ and your reasoning behind it. 

Boundaries should be different for different people.

You can also review your boundaries and change them if you decide that you want to be either more flexible or more rigid.

And you can make that decision depending on the other person’s circumstances and behaviour.

We need boundaries.

With knowing ourselves better, we begin to assert what is acceptable and what isn’t.

What we will tolerate and do, and what we won’t.

For example:

• How much effort you’re willing to put into a job. 
• How much time you’re willing to spend with someone. 
• What you’re willing to do with your partner. 
• What demands or expectations from others that you’re willing to meet.

Looking at your boundaries from this perspective, it is easy to see how boundaries ensure that you get your needs met, and aren’t being taken advantage of.

Creating and maintaining boundaries.

The first step in creating boundaries is to be crystal clear with yourself about the boundaries you want in place. 

Then you need to keep your boundaries in your thinking. Ask yourself, “Do my boundaries need re-enforcing?” when you interact with someone who keeps pushing against them.

Or, conversely ask yourself, “Do my boundaries need softening?” when you interact with someone who has learnt to have more respect for you.

Always express yourself assertively and clearly, leaving no doubt about your intended message. 

Mixed feelings.

It is natural to have mixed feelings about creating boundaries and enforcing them.

When I made the conscious decision not to be the people-pleaser and push-over any more, I felt a sense of guilt.

Partly self-imposed but mainly from others who applied guilt to have me revert back to meeting their needs without question.

A lot of people will feel a level of discomfort when asserting themselves.

These are your choices, and it is your right to assert them.

If you fail to set boundaries, no-one else will do set them for you!

In the give and take of life, it’s equally important to become aware of and to respect other people’s boundaries.

Just as you have a right to your boundaries, they have a right to theirs, even when you don’t agree with them!

How limits get set.

We’ve all felt them. We reach for a goal, only to stop short.

We call that stoppage or limit. 

All too often we don’t stop to analyse the origin of the limit or whether it’s a limit at all.

The problem is if you don’t understand how the limit was created in the first place, how in the world can you expect to defeat it? 

There are three originators of limits. Two of them come from us, and one doesn’t.

Let’s explore these further. 

Limits we encounter from the world around us. 

From the time we’re old enough to be aware that others around us not only exist but also form opinions of us by our actions, we start creating limitations.

These limitations have a lot to do with worry about being embarrassed, failing publically or being put into a position where we might be hurt or ridiculed. 

In short, we allow everyone in the world the honour of telling us our capabilities.

The only way past this particular kind of limitation is by standing up for yourself.

Decide just what you’re going to be affected by, and who has a right to tell you anything. Anyone else can jump in a lake.

Limits from our bodies. 

Unless you’re a super athlete, you’re not operating at peak efficiency.

In fact, according to various studies, the average person can use about 65% of their muscles (less if you’re a couch potato) as opposed to the 80% used by someone who’s trained professionally. 

What this means for you is that sometimes you’re going to physically hit a wall and think that’s where you stop. 

The truth is, you’re capable of more than you think. And it’s OK to force your body past that limit sometimes. Not sure how far is right for you? Enlist the help of your doctor or a personal trainer.

Limits that come from a brain that’s overloaded. 

When you get too busy or start multitasking, here’s where the problems start. A brain on overload makes mistakes. You start getting too emotional, and you make poor decisions. 

All this happens when your mind has reached the limit of what it can handle. 

The solution? Focus on one thing at a time. If that still doesn’t work, you might need a break for a bit.

The next time you feel like you’ve hit a wall, take time to ask yourself some honest questions about where that limitation came from in the first place.

By understanding where it came from, you know exactly how to work past it so that nothing will stand in the way of your success.  

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Dare To Be Different

Do you dare to be different or prefer to go with the flow? Do you look to fit in or do your own thing? Do you prefer to be anonymous or stand out from the crowd? 

If we are to improve, we must make consistent, intentional choices. 

But why do you act, feel, speak, and think the way you do?

Why do you make the choices that you do? Why do you choose to be different?

The answer might seem inconsequential, but it could be vital to your success.

Being successful at self-development requires you to break from the norms and take a stand.

For most of us, this will take us out of our comfort zone, but the benefits are massive.

Morning Ritual

I have a morning ritual. It involves getting up at 5:00 am and preparing myself for the day through a series of repeated and consistent tasks that I repeat daily.

I am fortunate to be taking some time off work and spending time with my 94-year-old Mother right now.

I still surface at 5:00 am most days, to be fair, my body wakes me up a little earlier, and complete as many of my usual tasks as possible. 

I take a short walk, drink water and don’t eat for the first two hours and then make my morning coffee.

There is something pleasurable about the sound of the coffee maker and that smell of coffee.

Despite being away from my norm, I manage to continue with my routines, such as reading, meditation, checking the weather, writing in my journal and training.

Between 5:00 and 6:00 am it is so quiet here. Aside from the occasional car passing, you would swear it is deserted. Almost all the other 265,000+ residents of St Petersburg chose to stay in bed while I walked outside and sat alone.

Newlywed and Nearly Dead

I expected to be alone. This place is known as ‘the land of the newlywed and nearly dead’.

Showing that it is mostly honeymooners and retirees that flock here.

And they generally follow a set pattern, including a late breakfast, plentiful food, a lot of alcohol and excellent sunsets that stretch into late-night entertainment.

Not everyone follows the same pattern, but the vast majority do.

For me, that doesn’t fit. Don’t get me wrong, I love food and enjoy a few drinks, but I chose to go to bed before 10:00 pm so that I could get up early.

I always try to maintain my morning ritual even if I am travelling. It is that important to me because I have determined it forms a crucial part of my self-development.  

And so I go for my walk and find myself alone: fascinatingly, wonderfully, beautifully, alone on my own tropical paradise. At least for an hour or so, and I love it!

Being A Follower

Going along with the herd definitely has value. Laws, guidelines, etiquette and rules are there for all of us all to follow. 

Choosing to drive through a red traffic light while everyone else follows the rules will probably result in an accident.

And walking to the front of a queue and demanding immediate attention doesn’t tend to make you many friends.

Social conformity definitely has a place.

When enough people agree to do the same things in the same way, then clubs, towns, countries and even empires are built. 

When we support and encourage each other around a set of agreed values, it makes us stronger and more influential. But there is more to the story.

Be Better By Being Different

There is no moral high ground here. I respect that everyone has the right to make their own choices. 

Getting up before 5:00 am does not make me any better than the next person.

I choose to get up before everyone else because it works for me. I made a deliberate and intentional decision to behave differently from other people.

Consider this, if people did not think outside the box and break out of the mould and be willing to take risks, we would not have the technology and achievement we currently enjoy. 

What if no-one had ever imagined a telephone in their pocket?

As I write that as I think how indispensable my iPhone is to me.

Innovation, by its definition, seeks to break free from the norm and challenge what is accepted.

Thinking and behaving differently is not reserved for the great or the few.

It is incumbent on us to be visionary about our self-development.

To Follow or To Lead?

It is easy to underestimate the power of peer pressure and social conformity.

When my friend, Mike, joins us for dinner out, he studies the menu but then asks everyone else what they are thinking of having.

He will invariably choose the same meal as someone else at the table.

We find comfort in being the same as others. Communal experiences feel good.

And that is wonderful to a point, when we blindly follow those around it leads us into a “sheep mentality”. 

On subtle levels, it prevents us from experiencing the variety and richness of life’s choices.

At its worst, it drives mob culture and crowd violence. 

On the other side, some people are determined to be different at any cost.

If you say it is too hot, they say it is just cold or at best, nice. Have you met someone like that?  

They seem to want everything to be an argument. I will admit to being a bit like that and perhaps can lapse even further into it sometimes. The problem is being different at any cost purely for the sake of being different is ultimately counter-productive. 

Rut of Rebellion

People find you anti-social. The end result is that rather than improving yourself, you are stuck in a rut of rebellion.

We need to find a balance between conforming and rebelling. When choosing the path for our lives, the default choice tends to be the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach. 

However, finding and consciously acting on our “points of difference” helps us to express our individuality and explore other avenues of self-improvement.

When considering the choices you have, a critical question to ask yourself is, “Is this my best option, or am I following what everyone else is doing?” 

You can ask yourself this question about:

• How you spend your free time.
• Your eating and exercise habits.
• The language you use (swearing for example).
• How you use social media.
• How you talk about your partner with others.
• The TV programmes and movies you watch.
• Your political affiliations and how you vote.
• Any area where you suspect you might tend to follow the herd mindlessly.

Brave To Change

Do you have the courage to be different when it matters? Daring to be different and taking a stand and is not about taking action against other people. It is about making choices for yourself. 

Change takes courage and is rarely easy. But if you can develop a vision of a better version of yourself and see the way forward, don’t let other’s opinions or social conformity hold you back.

Here are some questions to get you thinking about change:

• In what areas do you fall into herd mentality?
• When do you follow the herd when you know swimming against the tide would be better?
• What changes have you avoided because you fear what other people might think?
• Does life sometimes feel a bit too ordinary or routine?

Being different doesn’t have to involve sudden or significant change.

Self-development comes when good choices are followed through in small, simple, and consistent steps. 

Those steps need to start now.

1. Consider the areas in your life where you might need to make changes.
2. Decide to go against the herd if it is appropriate.
3. Drill down to find the one, single, most significant improvement you need to make.
4. Take action NOW.

I commend you if you’ve made a choice to not follow the herd and improve yourself.

Could you “Leave A Reply” below and share your experience to encourage the other readers?

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